We're hunting Christmas trees

As is our annual family tradition, we went yesterday to find our Christmas tree. Carter helped to cut it down. It is now beautifully adorned in our living room.

Happy Thanksgiving

Here is what we are thankful for this year.

Carter: My family, my home and my friends.
Tyler: The earth, Bryant, and my little sister.
Olivia: Grandma and Grandpa, Santa, and the whole family.
Audrey: Da, da, da.
Ryan: A new job, my family, and all of my friends.
Heather: Safety, security and family.

Carter's Children

Tonight Carter told me that he wanted to have ten kids. I smiled and told him that I would love all of his ten kids. Then he said, "That would be hard." I just looked at him, thinking he had caught on to some of the difficulties of raising children. He continued, "That would be hard to name them all. The first five would be easy, but the second five would be hard. They would have to be named Junior or something."

Audrey is six months old!!!

The Plan of Salvation

Tyler is learning to read and is doing quite well. He can sound out most words phonetically. He is constantly looking for opportunities to read.

Each Sunday morning, to keep my boys occupied while I get ready for church, I challenge them to find a scripture story that they can learn something about. Today was no different. When I finished getting ready, I asked the boys if they had found a story and Tyler said he had. As a matter of fact, he was still on the living room couch reading it.

I went into the kitchen to prepare lunch and he came in with the Illustrated New Testament Stories. I asked him what he had been reading and he said he had been reading about Heavenly Father's plan.

"What did you learn?" I asked.

" Well," he started, "I learned that Jesus and Heavenly Father had a plan for us and there was another guy who didn't want that plan and his name was...." He paused as he searched for his name. He was excited to reveal to me what he had learned. His finger led his eyes to the spot where he finally stopped and said,".....Stan."

Audrey's roll

After much anticipation and "coaching" from her sister, Audrey rolled over by herself yesterday. She was laying on the floor kicking and grabbing her feet. All of a sudden we looked at her and she was on her tummy. Mom celebrated a bit too loud and Audrey started to cry. She is so smart!!

A Beautiful Mind

Carter has been studying Leonardo DaVinci on his own. He aspires to be an artist but has been intrigued that DaVinci was an artist and a scientist. He loves to talk about how DaVinci wrote things backwards so that nobody could figure out what he was writing and he is always talking about how DaVinci built wings to fly but never figured out how to build a motor.

Yesterday I received a call from Mrs. Smith, the principal at Hilltop Elementary. She informed me that Carter had been playing in the bathroom and was caught by the recess aide. I was just coming home from running some errands so I detoured to the school to talk with Carter face-to-face.

When I got to the office, there was Carter looking like a puppy who had been kicked. I gave him a hug and asked him what was happening. He told me that he had been putting soap in the toilet. He would put a little soap in his hand and walk over to the toilet and shake it in. The aide caught him while he was doing this. I asked him what he thought would happen if he did that and he said he didn't know, he just did it.

We talked about how scientists have to come up with a hypothesis before they try something. For example, DaVinci had to guess how to fly, that is why he built wings. Carter thought that was pretty interesting. I hope we do more educated guessing before our experiments from now on.

How sweet the sound...

Olivia steals the bacon

Last night we went to the Spjut's house for Family Home Evening. After the lesson, we played a game called, "Steal the Bacon". In the game, two people go head-to-head to answer a question. When a person thinks they have the answer they "steal the bacon" (in this case, a bean bag) and then tell the answer.
Olivia went up against Carter. Amie showed a picture of David and Goliath and asked the question, "What was the name of the giant that David killed?" Olivia stole the bacon with striking confidence. Then she sat there and looked at me with a bit of embarrassment so I tried to prompt her by saying, "David and....?" Her face lit up as she got a renewed confidence and answered, "David and the bad guy."

Halloween

Halloween was a rainy, cold day that ended with a very pleasant, foggy night. It was perfect for trick-or-treating. Carter was Indiana Jones. Tyler was a boxer (with a black eye). Olivia was Supergirl. And Audrey was a cow. They all got a lot of candy that will provide us with a sugar rush for weeks to come.